Focus, Smile then Click

Its been a while since my last post but things have been a little hectic here in the Abyss. Holidays, family crisis', darts and college have kept me quite the busy bee these last couple of months.
The title of this episode refers to the college course I'm attending. Every Wednesday evening I drive over to Putney School of Arts armed with my DSLR ready to be versed in the finer points of photography and I am happy to say that slowly, but surely, the complex manual controls of the camera are becoming clear to me. So with Canon EOS450 DSLR in hand its off to college I go.

Weeks 1 & 2

During these lesson the possibilities of shutter speed were shown to me, so over the following weeks I experimented with the many different uses of shutter speed, combined with motion, low light and a few other factors to try and make it interesting.

This picture was taken in the Sample Room at Young's Brewery in Wandsworth. The brewery has been closed for a few years now but due to the long history of brewing on this site (500 hundred years and counting of continual brewing by one establishment or another) the owners and developers of the site have kept a micro brewery going in order to carry on the brewing legacy. The Sample Room is where this small amount of ale is made available for consumption to the chosen few. The picture was taken using f/3.5 1/8 second ISO400. It was my first attempt at indoors photography in low light with no flash.

Personally, I think it turned out quite well.

Weeks 3-6

The following few lessons explained the use of different ISO settings, aperture settings and a brief explanation of Servo AI.This picture was taken on the north bank of the Thames just East of Putney bridge. The picture was taken using f/11 10 second exposure and ISO200



Finally we were asked one week to take some shots of things that were a particular colour. My colour was black.

This picture is of (in case you hadn't guessed) a coat hanger hanging off a door. f/5 1/60sec exposure ISO1600



For this one I drew lines on a blank piece of paper to try and make the picture more interesting than just a pen on paper. I experimented with crazy scribbles, horizontal and finally vertical lines. I consider this to be one of the best ones, the lines guide your eye both to the pen, then the lid and beyond. f/4.5 1/60 sec exposure ISO800

Finally this picture was taken using f/5 1/80sec exposure ISO1600

Can you guess what it is.

If you have any questions regarding the pictures don't be afraid to ask and if any of you out there are avid photographers I'd love to hear any tips or advice you would care to offer.

Till next time......

The voice has spoken.